


consider me charmed

by youtiao



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Charms, Gift Giving, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 12:58:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18571978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youtiao/pseuds/youtiao
Summary: So everytime he sees an ugly fish-shaped charm he buys it to take home to Tooru, just to present it to him with an “it looks like you”.





	consider me charmed

**Author's Note:**

> i sat down and fic-ised a [thread](https://mobile.twitter.com/KINGZHYS/status/1091045519525199872) from january.. anyways, enjoy!!

Since the beginning of time, Hajime had compared Tooru to various ugly deep sea creatures. He thinks, looking back, that it’d just been a child’s joke that trailed after them into teenhood, adulthood like a particularly insistent dog—so much so he’d forgotten how the joke started. The sky is blue, grass is green, and the joke goes: Oikawa equals ugly fish. 

The joke itself isn’t even funny without pictures of an Oikawa (ugly fish) to compare to the scrunched-up snivelling face of Oikawa (Tooru). What’s funny is the way Tooru reacts—shock followed by indignance followed by  _ Iwa-chan how could you!!! _ And well, teenaged Hajime can’t keep lugging around encyclopedias full of the most horrific sea creatures, so— 

So everytime he sees an ugly fish-shaped charm he buys it to take home to Tooru, just to present it to him with an “it looks like you”. 

Shock, indignance,  _ Iwa-chan stop being mean! _

But like all things between them it becomes a contest—of sorts, because early on Tooru’d emptied his pockets on Godzilla charms to compare Hajime to, only for Hajime to accept them with glee (it‘s  _ Godzilla _ , Tooru). Tooru puts away the charms to compare to the next. They find homes: dangling from Tooru’s backpack, swinging from his phone strap, lined up neat in a wooden box full of these charms. 

Classmates ask: why? Why the ugly charm— and Tooru says:

_ It’s from someone important, so it’s alright if it’s ugly _ . 

A contest, a tradition. The charms get uglier and stupider and Tooru starts laughing when Hajime approaches with a small gift bag that could only hold—“I do  _ not _ look like an electric eel what the hell Iwa-chan!” As the charms get uglier, the wrapping gets nicer—Hajime finds himself nodding when the cashier offers gift wrap, ribbons, patterned paper bags and boxes. 

It’s the irony. Wrapping all pretty only to open it to find a... blobfish. 

They compare the newest to the oldest and Tooru whispers, hushed, “I can’t believe this fish is actually cute compared to the new ones.” 

Come Tooru’s birthday, marking three years since the beginning of this tradition—he dangles the sea bass charm from the ring, watching it throw colours all over the room. “He’s been out for  _ hours _ , Makki,” Tooru whines, padding around his room again all nerves and excitement. “Like, do you think he’s met his match or something? The monkfish charm he gave me on Valentine’s Day was too ugly and he can’t find something to top it?” 

But soon, the buzzer sounds, and Hajime is letting himself into their tiny shared apartment with his customary “I’m home, Shittykawa!”. He’s holding a large box, and a small bag—plain recycled paper around Tooru’s actual gift versus a pretty patterned bag stuffed with glittery tissue and curled ribbons. 

When Hajime hands over the bag, his eyes soften—“Happy birthday, Oikawa.” 

“Did you actually manage to find something uglier than the monkfish?” Tooru asks curiously. The bag has little iridescent aliens on it. Tooru can’t read the scratched off sticker tag, but—the fact that there  _ is _ a sticker tag means Hajime spent more money buying the bag instead of just using one of the bags the store gives. 

Tooru digs through the tissue paper, sparkles clinging to his hands—there's little confetti shaped like stars and spaceships, and he wonders why Hajime spent so much money on making the  _ wrapping _ pretty when the present's bound to be one of those ugly charms anyway. It’s not like his nineteenth birthday is a significant— 

He pulls out the card first. Hajime’s blocky handwriting reads: “it looks like you,” like always. 

But the charm— 

It's not a fish. It's not a monster, a fantasy creation. It's not some ugly deep sea creature. It's not the one terrible grey shrimp charm with the beady eyes, or the overtly realistic hermit crab, or the purple oyster with one googly eye. 

No, the charm isn't ugly.

(Smaller than the rest of the charms he’d been given, it twinkles in the light when he holds it up to his eye. It's clear, made of glass, little sparkles interspersed within.) 

It's a star. 

“Looks like you,” Hajime says. 

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/KINGZHYS) | [tumblr](http://kingzhys.tumblr.com)


End file.
